New York City 3-K Teachers Juggle Playtime With Potty Time

Applications open this week for New York City’s free pre-school programs, and slots for three year-olds are expanding. The new 3-K classes build on the success of the de Blasio administration’s free, full-day program for four year-olds. But some 3-K teachers want to flag an issue: the 15:2 student-teacher ratio makes it hard to manage classrooms full of young children, some of whom are not fully toilet trained. Everyone agrees the number one goal is to create a great program. But to get to number one, sometimes you have to deal with number two.